


Stupid at Best

by puste_blume



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Hinata is amazing, Hyuuga Neji Lives, Neji is smitten, Some Swearing, Some shut down sexism, Tenten is badass, a wooden training post gets utterly demolished, alexa play despacito for the training post, awkward neji, rip post
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:01:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23429632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puste_blume/pseuds/puste_blume
Summary: A bit more than half of the Rookie 12 come together to meet up at the Yaniniku Q for a pleasant evening, which turns a little sideways when someone makes a mindless comment about Tenten.
Relationships: Hyuuga Hinata/Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Neji & Tenten, Hyuuga Neji/Tenten, Nara Shikamaru/Temari
Comments: 4
Kudos: 69





	Stupid at Best

A meeting of **all** of the Rookie 12 was something that would happen as often as Rock Lee would sleep in*. This meant as often as not they had to resort to whoever was not on a mission if they wanted to meet up at all. This evening, the Yakiniku Q hosted a mixed group of more than half of the young Ninjas and therefore the meetup could be called a success.

“It’s not the same,” Naruto complained and poked around the meat he had put on his plate, “without Choji or Lee here I don’t even feel like trying to break the record.” Ino rolled her eyes, “Oh no, what a _nightmare_.” She reached over the table and stole a pepper from Tenten’s plate, who was busy talking to Hinata about her newest business exploits and the challenges of opening up a weapon shop.

“Hey! I saw that!” Tenten leaned forward with her own chopsticks, trying to get it back from Ino and had almost knocked over Neji’s glass if he hadn’t reflexively grabbed it last minute. But Ino had reacted quickly and the pepper was in her mouth with a speed usually only exhibited by Choji and Tenten had to lean back, pouting. “How come your famous trio was split up at all?” she said, gingerly placing a new pepper on the grill in front of her, keeping an eye on Ino’s greedy chopsticks. “Oh, it was really just logistics,” Ino explained, “Choji was needed for a mission and I was out, because with Sakura on a mission they needed someone to look over the hospital stuff and the new wing we are trying to establish and, well, Shika here was send on a _diplomacy_ mission.” She wiggled her eyebrows and elbowed her friend sitting next to her, who was suddenly very busy with trying to decide which slice of meat to fry next, a little bit of colour rising in his cheeks.

Tenten chuckled, “Oh really, how is Temari doing then, Shikamaru?” - “Huh, what? Oh, good, good…” Shikamaru decided the best decision to be prevented from answering any more questions was to take a big sip of his beer - 

“I wonder when you two are finally getting married!”

\- which was the wrong decision after all, and it took him at least a minute to stop coughing. “Kiba, you can’t break him like that.” Hinata half-seriously scolded her teammate. “But he just gives the best reactions,” Kiba defended himself, “besides, it’s a valid question, isn’t it? They have been dating _officially_ for at least three years now.” Ino protectively put a hand on Shikamaru’s shoulder, “Shikamaru just doesn’t know how to pop the question.” – “You’re not really helping, Ino.” – “Hey, but, you know, who I’ve been telling you _for weeks_ could help you is finally back from her mission! Why don’t you ask Tenten about Temari? I’m sure she knows.” - “Hell yeah, waddaya wanna know?” Tenten leaned forward, expectantly. Shikamaru looked extremely uncomfortable with the whole situation, so much so that even Naruto felt sorry for him, although it was hard for him to concentrate on any situation at hand at all, since he and Hinata had just, finally, a couple of months ago started dating and were still in that phase where it was difficult to focus on anything but each other.

“You know what, why don’t you swing by my flat tomorrow and we can talk then,” Tenten smiled at Shikamaru who visibly relaxed. Crisis averted. They chattered on about this and that for half an hour or so, before Tenten leaned to her left and whispered “Stop it” to her teammate. Neji seemed to be taken aback and mimed an innocent expression. “Stop what?” he asked. Tenten shook her head and instead reached for the bottle of Sake to pour some into Neji’s glass. “You’re staring daggers again, seriously, any more and you’ll stare holes through me, I swear.” She lifted the glass and pushed it into his hands. “Relax dude, they are just holding hands okay? This protective thing is really getting creepy.” Neji looked at the glass in his hands, raised it to his lips and drained the whole thing, supressing a cough. “Uh, you’re right. It’s just, people at the compound talk, the elders I mean, and I see this getting to her and- what are you doing?” Tenten refilled his glass again. “That’s very gallant of you, but honestly, fuck them” – Neji’s eyebrow twitched a little at the woman’s choice of language – “you’d do better to express support to her and defend her no matter what. The way you’re staring is sending the wrong message.”

Neji looked down at the glass, “Hn, thanks Tenten.” His friend just smiled and refilled her drink as well. “Oh, no problem.” They drank. This was how their relationship worked, wasn’t it, Neji mused. She would study his cold behaviour traits, which could, he knew, come off as outright hostile, and sort of teach him how to shift them a little bit. She’d often take the greatest blow that way, he knew. He wasn’t an easy person to be around with, he even used to be outright despicable. And still, from the beginning, she had defended his behaviour towards others and had been way too understanding towards his moods. He winced a little reminiscing about how he had tried to find out how far he was able to go with her, how many emotional blows she was willing to take, being frustrated with how cheerful she always was. He had soon gotten his answer, in a way, which made him start appreciating her in a whole other way, which was the reason he had finally started respecting her and their relationship as teammates. She had not started crying and telling him how she hated him after all, no, she had just called him out on his bullshit, told him exactly why he always pushed people away and also how much more she was willing to take before she, too, would drop him. Gai and Lee had watched from the side, Gai having to hold back Lee who had been fully ready to punch Neji into treating Tenten right.

A few years later Gai had confided in him that he had been close to throwing Neji out of the team, no matter what repercussions he would have had to face as a teacher. ‘You were uncooperative, had no respect for your teammates and actively held them back from their own training rather than learning and growing together with them. Had she not set you straight, and wow, I really could not have said it the way she phrased it at only twelve years old, I would have stopped trying to be your teacher’, he said before telling him how glad he was young Neji had changed his behaviour while pulling him into a bone-crushing hug.

Neji watched her from the side. She was having an in-depth discussion with Ino about something he couldn’t really follow, and her laughter filled the air around them. Watching her he felt a flutter in his chest, his heart skipping a beat and again, for who knows how often, he thought about what would happen if he just reached his hand out like so and brushed one of the lose strands of hair back behind her hear. His finger twitched involuntary and he put another slice of pork on the grill to keep his hand from doing something stupid. He didn’t even know when it had started, but Neji Hyuuga was thoroughly and utterly smitten with his teammate, the most beautiful and intelligent and funny and just amazing woman he’d ever known. And he had no idea what to do about it, because the person he usually consulted about advice was the same he kept thinking about, who seemed to have no clue whatsoever.

“-don’t you agree, Neji?” – “Hn?”, oh shit, what did she say? He had been too busy watching her lips move and completely missed the point of discussion. “I said I should find someone to help in the shop after I see whether it’s going to be successful.” She was watching him expectantly. “Oh, yeah, sure,” he took another sip before realizing Tenten had filled his glass up with alcohol again, and he was really starting to get a little tipsy. Across the table he caught the glace of Ino, who was watching him and smirked, glancing between him and Tenten, and, to his horror, shot him a knowing wink. Shit, was he that obvious?

Thankfully, the conversation had turned to a topic which was taking all their attention. “No really, I think we would need at least 100 cans of beans trying to make chili for everyone if we’d ever all come together to hang out. That’s why meeting up in a restaurant is so much more convenient.” Kiba was waving his arms around to stress his point. “That’s just a gross overestimation! You really wouldn’t need that much! I could probably calculate that down to one can give or take if you just give me some time,” Tenten said, “oh yeah and actually being 100% sober would help.” She giggled a little, sloshing the liquid around in her glass.

“Did you take like a cooking class or something?” Kiba asked, not completely convinced by Tenten’s confidence. “Nah, but I used to be on cooking duty a lot and once you turn 10 and also show you’re good with numbers, they let you calculate the weekly grocery shopping list and so on and so on. Which is pretty great, cause, you know, they let you chose what dessert to get for Sunday and you’re suddenly the coolest kid on floor three and everybody wants to be your friend with the hopes of selecting their favourite.” Kiba just looked more puzzled than before. “Cooking duty?” he asked. “At the orphanage, silly. Where I grew up? Didn’t you know that? That’s how I actually got to know Naruto.” She leaned forward so she could share a glance with the man in question who grinned back at her. Kiba seemed to finally catch on. “Oh, sorry, I mean, we never really talked about that. Wait, but Naruto didn’t live there, did he?” – “Nah, well, I had people come over to the flat and watch me, at least when I was way too young to be alone, but I always got my meals there, well, I was at least allowed in, I guess. I mean, I stayed at home more later on because the adults kept being weird to me, which, yeah, we all know why now, uhm… but I always still tried to come in on Sundays for dessert.” His smile was a little sad.

To fill the silence, Tenten quickly concluded. “So uhm yeah, that’s where I grew up and that’s why I can cook for many people and all…I thought it was obvious, you know, cause I don’t have a last or clan name for that matter.” She looked down on her plate, remembering how the adults used to whisper about the little, cheerful boy with the ill-fitting clothes and neglected appearance. In hindsight, she thought she should have done some nice things for him, but when she was younger, she had had her own battles to fight and wasn’t ready to take on anyone else’s. “Sorry, but uhm, hey, you don’t have to feel that bad about it,” Kiba lifted his glass, almost as if he was about to toast. Tenten was puzzled. “Feel…bad?” – “Yeah! I mean you’re a woman, you can just get married into a good clan to get a name, problem solved, eh.” Time slowed, Hinata drew in a breath and Shikamaru shrank into himself, sensing trouble.

Tenten suddenly felt very hot and very cold at the same time. Her voice was shaking a little bit when she raised her head and looked Kiba straight into his eyes and said: “ _What_ did you just say?” Kiba Inuzuka realized that something was very wrong and repeating his previous advice might not be the smartest thing, “I…” was all he had to offer, his voice trailing off when Tenten fixed him with such a chilling stare he’d never thought possible coming from her warm brown eyes. “Fuck you!” she almost growled at him, slightly shaking with anger. Without missing a beat, she got up from her seat and pushed pass Hinata and Naruto to head to the exit, trying to walk as much in a straight line as she could muster.

A ringing silence filled the air around the table and Kiba felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle uncomfortably. Neji was staring daggers through him, and if looks could kill, he’d surely be dead by now. The Hyuuga prodigy was about to speak up, when his cousin was the first to find her words. “That was a very hurtful thing of you to say, Kiba.” Her soft face showed utter disappointment, which might even be worse than her cousin’s icy-cold glare. “Do you realize, what you just said?” she asked her teammate in a collected but firm voice. Kiba was squirming around a little bit, “I just, well, she… looked sad when she said that and I mean that’s just a common thing with the marriage and-“ Hinata’s hand gesture cut him off. “No, that’s not what I asked. I said, ‘do you realize, what you said?’, because you just insulted her and everything she’s worked for her in entire career. Of course she has a name! She’s the greatest weapon specialist we have and her space-time justu is legendary! You sometimes act like such an idiot.” – “Not only that,” Ino poked her chopsticks into Kiba’s direction, which led Shikamaru to quickly duck back, “you just basically said the only thing women can do to get a good social standing is to marry some dude? I’m sure your mom would be really happy about that statement.” – “That’s not what I-“ – “Then think next time before you speak, jeez!” Shikamaru slowly lowered Ino’s chopsticks, still dangerously close to his face, down with a finger and turned to Kiba. “Look, man, you should really apologize for that. That was … stupid at best.” Kiba opened his mouth then closed it again and nodded, and started to get up when a cold voice cut in. “No, not right now, she won’t want to see you, she’ll be furious,” Neji was already getting up from his place, gave a little nod to his cousin and exited the restaurant, leaving the rest behind.

He found her, as expected, at their old training ground, currently demolishing a wooden post. Although Lee was certainly the best without question, Team Gai had always trained with a focus on Taijutsu and when Tenten was this angry nothing stood in her way for long. The clothes she had picked for the evening had surely not been made for training, but she didn’t seem to care about the dirt or tears they suffered from her furious punching and kicking. Slowly, Neji stepped a little closer, now only about 10 metres away from where she was.  
“What?” she almost spit the question and he was almost surprised by the unfamiliar tone of voice, now all blades and coldness, “Coming to check on me?” He stepped a little bit closer, slowly, the moonlight glittered on her face, sweat and tears reflecting the soft light. She had stopped punching and had not resolved to slamming a kunai into what remained of the post, just to pull it out again, before ramming it back. “No, I just thought I might leave before committing a murder which would surely ban us all from ever coming back there again.” She took a deep breath. “A pity. But understandable, I would not wanna be the person to relay that information to Choji.”

She was making jokes again, a good sign, Neji thought and gave a little smirk. “Hinata actually gave him a good talking down.” Tenten smiled a little and removed the kunai one last time before putting it back into the little pouch she always carried. “Damn, I would have liked to see that.” She leaned against the stump, surveying the frayed edges of her long-sleeved blouse. Neji looked around a little bit, then pointed towards one of the targets hanging at the end of the field, barely visible in this light. “You remember when you bet against Lee you could hit that while doing flips with your eyes closed?” Tenten followed his hand and grinned. “That was such an easy win. We had been training for a few months by then, he should have known I could do it.” Neji smiled slightly. “I thought it was impressive. To be honest, I hadn’t thought you could do it.” – “Really? I thought you were just annoyed I was getting side-tracked instead of training with you.” He shook his head. “No. This is actually why I told you about my blindspot that same week. I was a little scared you might find out on your own sooner or later and wanted to safe myself the embarrassment of you knocking me out during practise. And I knew your aim was true enough that you would be able to hit anywhere but there while we sparred.” Tenten was watching him while he spoke, a warm smile washing over her face. Neji almost tripped over his words a little, damn alcohol, and her beautiful eyes made it hard to concentrate on what he wanted to say. Tenten chuckled and punched his shoulder slightly. “Wow, who would have known! I impressed Mr. Sulky-face.” She closed her eyes and took another deep breath. “Thank you Neji, I really feel much better now.” She stepped a little bit away from the victim of her anger and cocked her head to the side. “Do you think I have to pay for a new one?” – “Hn? Oh, the post, I mean, if they actually trace that back to you, I’m sure Kiba will be happy to take over all charges.” Her giggle made his stomach jump a little. “That’s a great suggestion! Okay, whew, we-ell I better head home and take a shower, are we still up for some sparring tomorrow?” He coughed a little to overplay how much the alcohol had lowered his inhibition and that he was absolutely not just about to tell her how beautiful her hair looked in the moonlight, and instead gave a quick nod. “Great, see you then,” and with that she quickly skipped across the training field and out of sight, leaving him standing there in the cool summer night air.

‘Wow Neji, that would have been the perfect moment to tell her how much you actually admire her and how much you value her but, no, you blow it!’ Neji slammed his palm into the stick-formerly-called-a-post and made it, finally, give up and keel over. He looked down on to it and nodded, ’Same,’ before walking back to the compound through the soft sound of leaves rustling in a slight breeze.

* * *

A little extra:

“-so, I’m really sorry and will accept any punishment or whatever you see fit.” Tenten had to try very hard not to feel at least a little sorry for the young man. He looked like a kicked puppy and she could see his right eye was swollen shut, probably the cause of Lee’s fist who had come home from his mission only this morning and who someone, Tenten suspected Neji, had told about the whole story. It was a wonder the Inuzuka could still walk. She sighed. “Can you carry heavy boxes, clean, and put weapons on display without cutting yourself?” Kiba slowly raised his head. “Yeah, yes, sure.” – “Great,” she grinned and slapped his shoulder, which made him wince a little bit, “then, from now on, you will help me set up my shop, voluntarily of course, whenever you are not busy with missions.” She grinned. “And you can start right now,” she said and pushed a mop and cleaning rack into his hands. “I hope you’re not allergic to dust.”

* * *

*Contrary to popular belief this actually had happened! Once. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, you, yes you, thank you so much for reading. I hoped you liked it. In hard times like these I just always return to things that make me feel good and one of these things is NejiTen. This is actually the third fanfiction I have written about the pair, but the other two shall forever be lost in the depths of a place called fanfiktion.de, which is still haunted by my teenage-self I think. Stay safe y'all <3.


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